Cabot Trail reopens after washout

SYDNEY — A section of Cape Breton’s famed Cabot Trail has reopened after heavy rain washed out stretches of the coastal highway and damaged other roads in the area.

Several days of steady rainfall have left the land saturated and watercourses brimming with water. West Side Middle River Road and a rural road in Evanston have been particularly hard-hit.

With more rain on the way, residents on the island are fearing the worst.

Victoria County warden Bruce Morrison said sections of the Cabot Trail were submerged under water and impassable.

He said numerous homes in the area have flooded basements and the situation could worsen.

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Up to another 50 millimetres of rain are expected before Cape Breton skies begin to clear late Thursday.

“Most residents will continue to be very concerned until rain lets up,” Morrison said. “It’s a concern not only in residential areas but there has been farmland affected by the conditions.”

The Nova Scotia Transportation Department’s area manager, Stephen MacDonald, said some roadways have been reopened with minor damage that still needs repair while other roads could be closed for weeks.

“Two roads are still closed to through traffic because large culverts were washed out,” he said. “The heavy rain washed debris downstream and blocked the entrance to the culverts, causing flooding.”

He said new environmental regulations require the department to meet more stringent design criteria when replacing road infrastructure like culverts.

The department needs to build for a one-in-a-hundred-year storm event, as well as make considerations for fish passage, MacDonald said.

Meanwhile, Sydney-area residents are on edge about swelling brooks and streams.

Cape Breton Regional Municipality spokeswoman Christina Lamey said people have their sump pumps “going like crazy” to keep basements dry.

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“The rain has slowed to a drizzle, which is crucial for the abatement of the high water,” she said Wednesday evening.

While there are currently no reports of overland flooding or road closures in the area, she said city crews are closely monitoring waterways and changes in weather that could worsen the situation.

“The city is actively monitoring all of our water courses. We have no roads closed and we don’t have any reports of overland flooding impacting homes or infrastructure.”

At mid-afternoon, the flooding was confined to low-lying parkland, including ballfields in the city’s South End neighbourhood, which was hardest hit in 2016. Then, 200 millimetres of rain fell in less than a day, in a storm that was described as likely to happen only once in a century.

“The forecast right now is showing an average of about a millimetre an hour over the next 24-30 hours, and that’s a slower rate than we’ve been having,” Lamey said.

Unlike the flash flooding in Sydney last October after 225 millimetres of rain fell in a day, the region is under a large low pressure area that has lingered for days.

Still, Environment Canada meteorologist Linda Libby said much of Cape Breton has seen rainfalls levels in the last nine days that surpass what would normally fall in a month.

As a result, she said the ground is saturated with water and has little ability to absorb more rain.